Saw that it was on Netflix and, as I love Burns’ work, thought I’d watch it. Well, as it came up to Bataan, and bedtime, I opted to bail. Facing the worst humanity offers us not something to delve into before bed. For me, at least, my anxieties will go gangbusters and my sleep will be poor, at best.
This raised several memories. When a boy, living in San Miguel and later Subic Bay in the Philippines, I met several Bataan survivors. The horrors they faced aren’t academic. I saw the scars, the missing toes, the wounds. I see faces pained, decades later, when recollecting their stories. Perhaps these tales reach deeper into me than they do for others. Perhaps I’ve done well with absorbing the tao of the Buddha; compassion living deeply within me. Either way, I prefer to face the worst if humanity earlier in the day.
